Asite‘s share price leapt 35% yesterday, to a heady 2.875p, on news of the collaboration vendor’s deal with Welsh Health Estates (its first contract win announcement since April 2005). Given the market reaction, the news was clearly price-sensitive, yet the industry has been aware of the deal for over a month. First, Asite mentioned it when releasing its interim results on 28 September (see post); then Asite trumpeted the deal in a gushing, self-congratulatory news release on its website dated 12 October – 19 days before it made its London Stock Exchange announcement.
By the way, the three main contractors selected to work on the Welsh Health Estates project and use the Asite platform include Asite shareholder Laing O’Rourke.
The 12 October news release includes statements such as "This agreement reinforces Asite’s position as a market leader", and "makes the company the prime choice for collaboration tools in the public sector". All nonsense, of course, as several of Asite’s competitors (eg: 4Projects, BIW and BuildOnline) have substantial workloads in the public sector, including extensive work for the NHS and on other government initiatives such as Building Schools for the Future and the Decent Homes initiative.
